BOLTON Council leader Cliff Morris looks back at what has taken place in the town over the past year and sets out the challenges to come in the New Year.

THE year that has just gone has been an eventful one and although we take time to reflect on what has been achieved, it is important that we look forward.

The speed of change this past year has been as fast as ever – we’ve seen great progress in attracting businesses to Bolton town centre. Audi and Skoda are creating new showrooms on two of our gateway sites; the transport interchange is nearly complete, with quality office space alongside it; and the new Light Cinema and restaurants are pulling more people than ever into the town centre.

Across the borough we are seeing continuing levels of confidence in Bolton - at Logistics North we have three more huge international businesses committed to creating thousands of new jobs for local people over the next year.

We’re making excellent progress on major developments at sites like Middlebrook and Rivington Chase, as well as other important local projects including the state-of-the-art Horwich Leisure Centre and health facilities, and we’ve recently received planning permission for new library in Little Lever.

Of course, there will be plenty of challenges to face in 2017. In particular, we’ll need to be clear about how we can work with partners across Greater Manchester to ensure Bolton continues to grow sustainably. We can’t stand still while the world around us moves on, but we need to make sure that the opportunities we take are right for Bolton.

I wish you a very happy New Year as we all need a bit of light in what is a very dark world at the moment, as tensions swell, not just in international relations but in our own communities too.

In the past year, differences have been openly debated. We have seen a fantastic democratic process unravel which resulted in a vote to leave the European Union, but we still stood side by side when terror attacks sought to incite fear across our democracy.

I hope that 2017 will be a prosperous and peaceful year for you, your loved ones and the whole Bolton family.